Jeremiah 20:12 But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.
Children usually take the promises of their parents very, very seriously. If a dad promises his kids that they will have ice cream on Saturday night, every kid in that house will remember the promise and every kid will be hurt if Dad doesn’t keep that promise. Well, perhaps you have grown up and your dad and mom no longer promise you ice cream on Saturday night. You yourself are the parent now, but the truth is, all of us are aware of the promises of God and sometimes even as adults we feel as if God is not keeping His promise. This is nothing new.
In Jeremiah’s day, Jeremiah had a hard message to a hard-hearted people, and God said, “Don’t be afraid of these people. Don’t be dismayed at their faces. I have made you. I am going to protect you. They are going to fight against you, but they will not prevail, for I am with you to deliver you.” That was the promise of God to a fearful Jeremiah, yet Jeremiah came to a point in his life where he was in stocks.
It wasn’t just the foreign enemies of God who had done this to Jeremiah. It was the chief governor in the house of the Lord. This man was to put away troublemakers in the temple, but he was putting away Jeremiah for giving God’s message to God’s own people in God’s own place. What a crazy thing! Jeremiah was perplexed. God had promise him the enemies would not prevail. God had promised him that He would be with Jeremiah, yet it didn’t seem to be the case.
Jeremiah said, “For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.” In other words, Jeremiah was saying, “My trouble started when I started to do what was right. I was doing fine when I was minding my own business, but as soon as I did what God told me to do, I had trouble.”
Beginning in verse 14 Jeremiah seems to mirror the words of Job. He basically says, “Why did God let me be born if all I was being born to was trouble?” Have you ever seen or felt a gap between God’s promise and your experience?
Jeremiah knew what to do when he felt such a problem. Verse 12 says, “For unto thee have I opened my cause.” In verse 13 he says, “Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the evildoers.” He came to see that the Lord was with him.
The bottom line is that you cannot judge your life, God’s promises, or your prospects against the short term. Centuries later, Paul would basically say, “People who should have been my friends deserted me, but the Lord stood with me.” Think about Paul and Silas in stocks singing praises to God at midnight. The Lord has said that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
Peace is not the absence of problems; it is the presence of God. Did God’s rebellious people prevail against God? No, they did not. Was God with Jeremiah? Yes, He was, and God was not just with Jeremiah on his greatest day or his strongest moments. God was with Jeremiah when he was sitting in the stocks, bound by wicked men.
Ultimately God will win, and in the meantime every day, in good times and bad, God is with you. Don’t judge your life, your promises, or your prospects against the short term. Realize that there is an eternal God with an eternal perspective Who goes with you today.